Friday, June 1, 2012

Things I learned from Diabetes this month: May edition

-It took me until the last month of school to figure out Elise's settings for school days. Now, to be fair, we did only start pumping in November, but that still seems like a slow learning curve to me. Anyway, using a combination of bolusing for more carbs than she eats at breakfast, plus a temp basal for two hours will land her in the mid-100s by snacktime. Remember, this is what works for US and should not be considered medical advice.

-I have discovered that lately I have more patience to wait out a rough patch, and inevitably things always return to normal without any tweaking of numbers. Those two or three days are awful and usually spent rage-bolusing and temp-basaling, but it is so worth it when things settle down just fine with the original settings.

-I cannot, for the LIFE of me, figure out how to handle pod-change days. What works for one change, won't work for the next one. I used to have a great system, but these days I'm scratching my head. For the record, Elise is awesome at pod changes, it's the aftermath of the numbers that is kicking my butt.

-I used to be great at logging, but pumping has changed all that. I have Elise's logs all the way back to her dx date when she was on MDI. I made my own spreadsheet (the Omnipod logs are visually very unappealing to me), but only break it out when something catastrophic is happening.

6 comments:

Ah, yes, the learning curve...sometimes it's fast pitch, sometimes it's a slow, bouncing, never-seems-like-it-will-get-to-the-plate pitch. Wish I had some help for pod changes...Bean doesn't like them (who would?!) but she doesn't make a fuss (at least it's usually just a small screaming/crying fit if we hit a sensitive place).I, too, have let logging go by the wayside...unless there's a glaring issue that doesn't seem to be 'fixed' with a simple tweak.:)

Now that she is almost full grown, there are no problems with site changes unless the site is a failed one. I do remember the highs that came with Animas pump when she was 8 after a site change... but it did not always happen. We were told to leave the old set in for a few hours as there could be insulin at the "depot." Which sometimes did and sometimes did not work. Don't think you can do this with the pod. This continued to happen on the Minimed pump but stopped at age 11. I believe this is because at that point her basals were quite high. My theory is when you have low basal rates with small children any interruption in the flow of insulin presents a problem. We used to correct and temp basal up for a few hours. Could not predict as this did not always happen so we did not automatically put on a temp basal in advance. You will figure out something and it will usually work; maybe not 100 percent of the time but most of the time. Good luck!

Logging? What logging? Haven't logged a thing since Ava started podding in Dec. Baaaaad mommy.

Pod changes are so annoying. We have had both the best and worst pod change numbers this week. I am currently so fried from the end of the school year, I'm just coasting right now. Of course everything will change with summer and then I'll start dealing.

Hope you are well. We're packing for our first river trip with omnipod! Worried about the fine, fine silt that makes the water look like choc milk. Thinking of covering the whole pod with a giant tegaderm patch. Bringing insulin pens and needles as backup. Wish us luck!

Hi Stranger! I'm been out of the loop for a while, but trying to catch up with everyone.

FYI, it took me nearly a year to get MAtthew's rates straight at school. Then the stinker grew and through it all off.

I did find that I had to use a lower ratio on school days. I think the excitement would send him higher. That lasted for nearly 2 years, then by about April of this year, he didn't need to extra insulin. Go figure...

Pod changes still kick my butt sometimes. We do 1.25-1.50 on the old pod. Then change the pod and do a +60% temp basal for 3 hours. It sounds like a lot, but he needs it every time. We gradually upped that until I figured it out.

About This Blog

I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. I am just a Mom whose little girl has Type 1 Diabetes. On this blog you will find tips and advice, but it should NEVER be a substitute for your doctor's wisdom. If your child has diabetes, or you suspect that your child has diabetes, please seek the attention of a healthcare professional, and not some crazy, over-worked, frazzled, sleep-deprived nutjob who has staked out her corner of the world-wide-web-information-super-highway and is espousing her viewpoints from it.